A new global study has placed the Philippines at the bottom of the table for declining confidence in journalism, with Filipino trust in news sliding 10 points in the first half of 2026 — the sharpest single drop recorded across all 48 countries surveyed.
The finding comes from the Reuters Digital News Report 2026, released June 16 in its 15th annual edition. Researchers drew on responses from close to 100,000 people polled online, conducting the work against what the report described as a turbulent stretch of global politics and economic strain.
By the numbers, only 28% of Filipinos now say they trust the news they encounter, a figure that sits beneath the worldwide average of 37%. Disengagement is widespread as well: just over 51% admitted they sometimes or often steer clear of the news altogether.
Where Filipinos go for information has shifted decisively toward digital platforms. Online sources — among them news sites, apps, social and video networks, podcasts, and AI chatbots — continue to draw 85% of the population, a share unchanged since 2020. Social media specifically accounts for 70%, another figure that has flattened out over recent years. Facebook dominates as the leading social news source at 72%, trailed by YouTube at 48% and Facebook Messenger at 33%, with TikTok, Instagram, and X completing the six most-used networks.
That digital pull has come at the expense of legacy media. Television news viewership has slipped from 66% in 2020 to 42% this year, while print readership has contracted from 22% to a mere 10% over the same span.
Mitali Mukherjee, who directs the Reuters Institute for the Study of Journalism, framed the mood in her foreword to the report. “Against this backdrop, we see audiences reacting with a mix of anxiety and disengagement, and searching for new ways to make sense of their daily lives,” she wrote.
Reporting from Vera Files added further texture, noting that roughly two-thirds of Filipinos now get news from content creators and influencers. Over a recent seven-day window, 36% had watched videos from news-oriented creators, while 46% followed lifestyle figures who occasionally touch on current affairs.
Skepticism, meanwhile, has not eased even as trust has eroded. Two-thirds of Filipino respondents — 66% — said they recognized that what they read online could be the work of disinformation or misinformation efforts.
The Philippines was not alone in posting a steep decline, though it led the field. Ireland recorded a nine-point fall, while Thailand, Peru, and Poland each dropped eight. Within the Asia Pacific group of 11 nations, six landed above the global trust average, led by Hong Kong at 52%, then Thailand at 47%, Singapore at 46%, Australia at 43%, Japan at 41%, and India at 39%.
Vera Files argued the Philippines matches nearly all the conditions Reuters tied to elevated distrust. The report pointed to “political instability, divisive elections,” a “noisier and more fragmented information environment,” and deliberate attacks on outlets and reporters. Those dynamics, Vera Files noted, surfaced across the Duterte and Marcos administrations through “political polarization, disinformation, especially during elections, alongside red-tagging, lawfare, online harassment, media criticism and killing of journalists.”
Subscription uptake remains a small counterweight to all this: 13% of Filipinos report paying for one or more online news services.
